Free-travel Schengen Europe could be thing of the past, EU leaders warn

The whole Schengen area “will collapse” without a united EU migrant policy, says French President François Hollande, adding that in this case the European countries will return to national borders.

Hollande said that he proposed, along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel “a permanent and obligatory mechanism” for distributing refugees and migrants between all European countries. However, this mechanism should be adopted by the European countries.

“If there is not united policy of EU, this mechanism does not work, it will explode, and at this moment there will be a huge influx [of asylum seekers] and undoubtedly it will lead to the end of Schengen, the return to national borders.”

On Wednesday, Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission President, is set to present a plan to relocate about 120,000 refugees from Italy, Greece and Hungary. The new arrangement says that Germany is to accept a further 31,000 asylum seekers, followed by France with 24,000 and Spain with almost 15,000.